Feed a family of 4 on £100 for a month.

tessie_bear

u could try
#porridge for breakfast
#making own bread
#shopping later in the day when food reduced
#buying a bag of lentils to make mince stretch
#eating less meat...use eggs they are cheaper

good luck

katieowl_2

I think porridge has to be the way to go with breakfast - value oats are 75p a kilo in Mr T.

Cheapest thing I've found for sandwiches is haslet off the deli counter - delicious with mustard or horseradish - 10 slices are around £1 (it's 3.15 a kilo) don't know if your kids would eat it though?

I'd also be looking at things like bacon offcuts (cooking bacon in Mr T 75p for 500g) which you can cook and add to tinned beans to make more of a meal of them.

Pasta with HM tomato sauce is pretty cheap, bit of cheese on top for protein.

It's going to be a struggle for £25 a week, but I think it's do-able (well it has to be doesn't it?) maybe better to do two £50 shops and make sure that you've menu planned for a fortnight. If it was me I'd go very very simple though, and make some of those meals 'something' on toast or soup...and I'd all try and figure out the best time to do that £50 shop to make sure there was a lot of reduced stuff likely to be available - buy bread for the two weeks and freeze it - for example.

Do check all the prices in the shop to make sure you get the most for your £££'s though. Deli counter cheese on offer is often quite a bit cheaper than even the value stuff...and those veg that are priced each? They can vary a hell of a lot in weight, I'm quite prepared to weigh half a doz cabbages to get the biggest one! I noticed that the 'family pack' of mushrooms was cheaper than buying them loose, and that four jacket spuds at 50p were marked as weighing 750g - but some of the packs weighed 1.4kg making them cheaper than any of the other spuds in store that day.

ALSO don't underestimate how much you might save if you can shop in more than one place. Aldi veg are much much cheaper than Mr T.
(But they don't have scales to check weights, so you'll have to guess!)

If there is shop anywhere you can get a sack of spuds, work out the price per kilo and see if that is cheaper still? I've made potato and onion soup before now, and the kids used to like it...cheap as anything, secret is lots of dried herbs!

Kate

lizzywig

Well minced beef seems to be the cheapest mince and if you look at the quantity of what you are purchasing then you can work out how to get the best deal. I tend to look at Tesco online before purchasing just so I can get it straight in my head. E.g. you could buy 500g for £1.80 or 900g is £3.50 on or offer for buy 2 for £6, which equates to 1800g for £6. So I would personally go for the offer. You could also visit your local butchers (if you have one) ours usually has an offer on, say £10 for 10lbs of minced beef.

If you buy enough for the month you can buy more for less, cook it up in bulk (say with diced onions) and freeze it into portions and defrost when required. Alternatively you could just split the mince up and not cook it in advance and freeze as is.

I think to stick to your budget you'll need to meal plan for a full month and decide what meat you're going to have. Here's an example:

Week 1
Mince x 2 meals
Toad in the hole x 1 meal
Sunday = Roast chicken (freeze leftover chicken)

Week 2
Mince x 2 meals
Sausage & mash x 1 meal
Sunday = Homemade Chicken Pie (using leftover chicken from last week)

Week 3
Mince x 2 meals
Toad in the hole x 1 meal
Sunday = Roast chicken (freeze leftover chicken)

Week 4
Mince x 2 meals
Sausage & mash x 1 meal
Sunday = Homemade Chicken Pie (using leftover chicken from last week)

TOTAL meat requirements from above
Mince meals x 8
Sausage meals x 4 (1 bag of sausages)
2 x large chickens

By using the same type of ingredients you effectively cut your costs. So your meat meals are covered above and then your other meals could include things such as homemade soups (love leek and potato, it's so filling), Mac & Cheese, Risotto, Jacket Potatoes, Pasta bake or Omelete. I always try and do something a little bit more exicting/Saturday nightish for a Saturday night, say a homemade pizza or fish and chips (homemade chips) and breaded fish from supermarket (buy when on offer). OR you could do this for a treat http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/chicken-katsu-curry-1919371.html (I just use a combination of normal breadcrumbs and crushed cornflakes instead of panko breadcrumbs).

I really think it's all in the planning, I budget to £200 a month including toiletries and household products so what I'm covering above is less varied than what I do because I do a fortnightly meal plan instead of monthly but I believe that if you plan it monthly you could do it on £100.

MaxSusie

Asda currently have 3 for £10 offers on lots of their meat including chickens, big packs of mince, casserole type meats etc so it may be worth a look. I use a 500g packet of minced beef and make a spag bol out of it and a chilli for 4 of us (DH, me, DS1 and DS2) The boys are 17 and 13 and eat like horses too! I put 2 onions, the mince, 3 grated carrots, a handful of frozen peppers, a handful of frozen mushrooms, grated courgette/butternut squash, chopped celery or whatever else I've got in, 2 tins of tomatoes and the usual herbs and garlic. Add tomato puree and water if the sauce looks like it needs more liquid. Simmer for an hour then split in half and add a tin of kidney or baked beans and some chilli powder to one half and that becomes the chilli. I freeze either one of them so that there's always a quick meal in the freezer.

I can also recommend the Tesco Value or Asda Smartprice cooking bacon. 75p for 500g and there's loads. I make pasta bake, tomato and bacon pasta sauce, quiche, egg & bacon pie, sandwiches, stuffed baked potatoes and all sorts with it. HTH

Edited to add: I do a soup and a pudding night every week to help stretch things. I do mixed veg soup, leek & potato or a gentle spicy lentil and serve it with homemade soda bread (recipe here) or whoopsied bread that I've frozen. Puddings can be anything from fruit salad, crumbles (my cheapest is a tin of peaches topped with crumble) and fruit pies and custard. It's filling and most children enjoy it plus you get a puddingy treat

patchwork_cat

This is going to be tight, but if you are going to do it you need to devour these boards for inspiration. I would advise an allotment or growing lots of veg in your garden - cost this by perhaps not growing lots of cheap veg if space is limited, but items that are more expensive, unless you find space efficent methods for example potatoes like this http://lifehacker.com/5202849/grow-100-lbs-of-potatoes-in-4-square-feet. Join the sticky grocery challenge at top of the board. http://frugal-cooking.co.uk/recipe/193/batch-bake-minced-beef-recipe This might help you estimate about 15p a portion.In the meantime,perhaps look into buying sacks of potatoes and onions.

ally18

Hi,

I currently try to spend £25 per week on food and here is what I do if it helps. Plus always take a calculator and always write down what you need. Write your meal plan out for the week first.

We eat a lot of mince and I make cottage pie bulked up with veg and mushrooms. One pack of mince that I buy at reduced prices, will make two meals to start off with, frozen mixed veg isnt that costly and one bag of pots will stretch to cover both these pies and an extra meal.
A bag of frozen sausages will last about 3 meals with mash, hm chips etc. Buy cheap tins of soup and use these as casserole sauces. I made a potato bake at the weekend using a tin of chicken soup, thinnly sliced potatoes, chopped onions, 1 chicken breast fillet and mushrooms and it was lovely, plus it made two meals for 3 people.
Toast is ideal with eggs, beans etc for lunch and always make sure you have something filling for breakfast. Porridge is what we have.
Buy some tinned fruit for dessert or rice pudding, that sort of thing for afters if you are still not full.
You can do it.
Best of luck.

spiddy100

I'd be thinking porridge for breakfast (you can flavour it with value golden syrup or stewed fruit for variety), soup for lunch. If you're eating mince then bulk it out with lentils or oats. Try Aldi and Lidl for cheap veg and really bulk up your meals with that - one sausage each for tea is bearable if you have mash, value beans and a nice pile of veg with it. And asian (indian/bangladeshi) shops for cheap pulses and rice.

Will your 8yo be getting free school meals or are you trying to provide a packed lunch within that budget too?

Have you got any nice neighbours who have fruit trees in their gardens? I've been given enough free windfall apples to make puddings for months. I also know someone who keeps chickens who gives me eggs. Is it worth asking around? Things like that can really help.

flaire

It might be an idea to find your local Trussell Trust. Your Citizen's Advice Bureau will be able to help you. The Trussell Trust provide food parcels for families in need. A £100 a month for four is quite a stretch, not impossible, but with a food parcel that £100 could stretch further.

Good luck.

VJsmum

Is there nothing else you could reduce - things like petrol, sky, mobile phone use? I would reduce a lot of this before i cut down so much on food.

Also look at what you have already in cupboards, freezers etc. It's amazing what you find lurking that can be used.

Malfiore

Try your market or if you have a weekly market near you for veg. Mine is amazing for veg and soooo much cheaper than the supermarket!

Reduced foods are brilliant - Friday evening and Sunday before closing i find are the best and remember you can freeze stuff.

Try veggie meals a few times a week as this will really cut down your budget - things like lentils as people have mentioned replace the meat and are filling.

It is doable, it will just take planning and making time to batch cook - good luck